Background
He was born on October 8, 1857 in Machias, Maine to Nathaniel Smith Albee and Amanda Higgins Crocker.
He was born on October 8, 1857 in Machias, Maine to Nathaniel Smith Albee and Amanda Higgins Crocker.
He toured with P. T. Barnum as a roustabout, then in 1885 he partnered with Benjamin Franklin Keith in operating the Bijou Theatre in Boston, Massachusetts. With the success of their business, it grew into the Keiththeatre circuit of vaudeville theatres. gradually took managerial control of Keith"s theatrical circuit. They were the first to introduce moving pictures in the United States.
In 1900 Pat Shea of Buffalo proposed to Keith and that they should set up a shared booking arrangement for vaudeville similar to the Theatrical Syndicate.
They called a meeting in May 1900 in Boston of most of the major vaudeville managers, including Weber & Fields, Tony Pastor, Hyde & Behman of Brooklyn, Kohl & Castle, Colonel Juris Doctor Hopkins, and Meyerfield & Beck of the Orpheum Circuit of the western United States of America. They did not invite Frederick Freeman Proctor, Keith"s main competitor, but the other managers objected to this and insisted on a meeting in New York where Proctor was invited. The Vaudeville Managers Association (VMA) was founded at the New York meeting.
Keith and dominated the new organization. was president of the VMA"s United Bookings Office from its formation in 1906. had most of the major vaudeville circuits give him control of their theatrical bookings where he charged acts a 5% commission. When performers tried to form a union, he set up National Vaudeville Artists and made membership in it a requirement for booking through his company.
His partner Keith died in Palm Beach, Florida in 1914.
He formed the Keith--Orpheum corporation on January 28, 1928 with Joseph P. Kennedy. Radio Corporation of America bought his company and formed Radio-Keith-Orpheum Pictures ("Radio-Keith-Orpheum") and turned the Orpheum vaudeville circuit into a chain of movie theaters. died on March 11, 1930 at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida. He was buried at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New New York
Many entertainers considered "s tactics tyrannical and he was not popular among them.
Groucho Marx referred to the United Bookings Office as ""s Gestapo". Joe Frisco summed up the impression of power made.
Exiting "s office into a street under construction, his agent wondered why the street was being torn up and Frisco quipped, ""s kid lost his ball." appears as a small character in the first act of the 1968 Broadway musical, George M!.